In Sudan’s North Darfur state, displaced people and doctors say the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are attacking hospitals and camps in the capital, El Fasher. Meanwhile, nonprofit groups say the world is paying little attention as a city that was supposed to be a haven for those forced out of their homes by war is being torn apart. Henry Wilkins has the story.
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Ugandan film producer Allan Manzi is an award-winning filmmaker known for his work on a Ugandan local series called “Juniors Drama Club.” VOA’s Jackson Mvungani spoke with him about the state of the Ugandan film industry. Videographer: Mugue Davis Rwakaringi.
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KAMPALA, Uganda — Early last year, Caroline Ikendi was in distress after undergoing an emergency Caesarean section to remove one stillborn baby and save two others. Doctors said one of the preterm babies had a 2% chance of living.

If the babies didn’t get breast milk — which she didn’t have — Ikendi could lose them as well.

Thus began a desperate search for breast milk donors. She was lucky with a neighbor, a woman with a newborn baby to feed who was willing to donate a few milliliters at a time.

“You go and plead for milk. You are like, ‘Please help me, help my child,'” Ikendi told The Associated Press.

The neighbor helped until Ikendi heard about a Ugandan group that collects breast milk and donates it to mothers like her. Soon the ATTA Breastmilk Community was giving the breast milk she needed, free of charge, until her babies were strong enough to be discharged from the hospital.

ATTA Breastmilk Community was launched in 2021 in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, by a woman who had struggled like Ikendi without getting support. The registered nonprofit, backed by grants from organizations and individuals, is the only group outside a hospital setting in Uganda that conserves breast milk in substantial amounts.

ATTA, as the group is known, receives calls for support from hospitals and homes with babies born too soon or too sick to latch onto their mothers’ breasts.

More than 200 mothers have donated breast milk to support more than 450 babies since July 2021, with over 600 liters of milk delivered for babies in that period, according to ATTA’s records.

In a measure of efforts to build a reliable community, many donors have given multiple times while others help to find new ones, said ATTA administrator Racheal Akugizibwe.

“We are an emergency fix,” Akugizibwe said. “As the mother is working on their own production, we are giving (her) milk. But we do it under the directive and under the support of a lactation specialist and the medical people.”

She added: “Every mother who has given us milk, they are kind of attached to us. They are we; we are them. That’s what makes it a community.”

ATTA makes calls for donors via social media apps like Instagram. Women who want to donate must provide samples for testing, including for HIV and hepatitis B and C, and there are formal conversations during which ATTA tries to learn more about potential donors and motivations. Those who pass the screening are given storage bags and instructed in safe handling.

Akugizibwe spoke of ATTA’s humble beginnings in the home of its founder, Tracy Ahumuza, who would store the milk in her freezer. Ahumuza started the group amid personal grief: She hadn’t been able to produce breast milk for her newborn who battled life-threatening complications. Days later, after the baby died, she started lactating.

She asked health workers, “Where do I put the milk that I have now?'” Akugizibwe said. “They told her, ‘All we can do for you is give you tablets to dry it out.’ She’s like, ‘No, but if I needed it and I didn’t get it, someone could need it.'”

In the beginning, ATTA would match a donor to a recipient, but it proved unsustainable because of the pressure it put on donors. ATTA then started collecting and storing breast milk, and donors and recipients don’t know each other.

Akugizibwe said the group gets more requests for support than it can meet. Challenges include procuring storage bags in large quantities as well as the costs of testing. And donors are required to own freezers, a financial obstacle for some.

“The demand is extremely, extremely high,” Akugizibwe said, “but the supply is low.”

Lelah Wamala, a chef and mother of three in Kampala who twice has donated milk, said she was spurred to act when, while having a baby in 2022, she saw mothers whose premature babies were dying because they didn’t have milk.

Being a donor is a time-consuming responsibility, “but this is the right thing to do,” she said.

Via motorcycle courier on Kampala’s busy streets, breast milk from donors is taken to ATTA’s storage and delivered to parents in need.

ATTA’s goal is to set up a full-fledged breast milk bank with the ability to pasteurize. The service is necessary in a country where an unknown number of women suffer for lack of lactation support, said Dr. Doreen Mazakpwe, a lactation specialist who collaborates with ATTA.

Mazakpwe cited a range of lactation issues mothers can face, from sore nipples to babies born too sick or too weak to suckle and stimulate milk production.

If both mother and baby are healthy, “this mother should be able to produce as much milk as the baby needs because we work on the principle of supply and demand,” said Mazakpwe, a consultant with a private hospital outside Kampala. “So, in situations where there’s a delay in putting the baby on the breast, or the baby is not fed frequently enough … you can eventually have an issue where you have low supply.”

Mazakpwe said she advises mothers on how to establish their own supply within about a month of receiving donated breast milk, and sometimes all that’s needed is to hold the baby the right way. When mothers start lactating, it frees up supply for new ones who need ATTA’s help, she said.

Akugizibwe said their work is challenging in a socially conservative society where such a pioneering service raises eyebrows. Questions, even from recipients, include fears that babies who drink donated breast milk might inherit the bad habits of their benefactors.

In addition, “If you don’t breastfeed there is a lot of negativity,” said Ikendi, whose premature babies survived on donated milk. “Society looks at you as though you’ve just literally refused to breastfeed.”

She spoke of struggling even when she knew she had no choice after seeing her babies in the intensive care unit for the first time. Through the glass she saw they were so tiny, on oxygen therapy and bleeding from their noses. The babies, a boy and a girl, had been removed at seven months.

Ikendi’s babies received donated breast milk for two months.

One recent morning, an emotional Ikendi held her children as she described how the donated milk “contributed 100% to our babies’ growth.”
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Dakar, Senegal — When armed men entered Safi’s village in northern Burkina Faso and began firing, she hid in her home with her four children. The gunmen found them and let them live — to suffer the guilt of survival — after killing her husband and other relatives.

Safi, whose last name has been withheld for security reasons, is among 2 million people displaced in the West African country by growing violence between Islamic extremists and security forces.

About 60% of the displaced are children. Many are traumatized, but mental health services are limited and children are often overlooked for treatment.

“People often think that the children have seen nothing, nothing has happened to them, it’s fine,” said Rudy Lukamba, the health coordinator for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Burkina Faso.

He works on a program to help identify and treat traumatized children. It often relies on mothers to spot signs in children as young as 3 or 4. The chances of a successful outcome after treatment is greater when the children have a parental figure in their lives, he said.

Mass killings of villagers have become common in northern Burkina Faso as fighters linked to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida attack the army and volunteer forces. Those forces can turn on villages accused of cooperating with the enemy. More than 20,000 people have been killed since the fighting began a decade ago, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit group.

Mental health services in Burkina Faso are often reserved for only the most severe cases. A U.N. survey published in 2023 showed 103 mental health professionals in the country of more than 20 million people, including 11 psychiatrists.

Community-based mental health services by social workers are expanding, now numbering in the hundreds and supported by a small team of U.N. psychologists. In addition, traditional medicine practitioners in Burkina Faso say families are increasingly turning to them for help with traumatized children.

But the need is immense. The U.N. said surveys by it and partners show that 10 out of 11 people affected by the conflict show signs of trauma.

With no money and fearing another attack, Safi set off on foot with seven children, including her own, across the arid plains in search of safety. They settled in a community in Ouahigouya, the capital of Yatenga province, and sought help.

It was there that Safi learned how post-traumatic stress can affect children. They had nightmares and couldn’t sleep. During the day, they didn’t play with other children. Through the ICRC, Safi was connected with a health worker who helped through home visits and art, encouraging the children to draw their fears and talk about them.

Traditional medicine practitioners are also helping traumatized children. One, Rasmane Rouamba, said he treats about five children a month, adapting the approach depending on the trauma suffered.

Children in Burkina Faso also have lost access to education and basic healthcare in fighting-affected areas.

The closure of schools is depriving almost 850,000 children of access to education, the U.N. children’s agency has said. The closure of hundreds of health facilities has left 3.6 million people without access to care, it said.

Burkina Faso’s government has struggled to improve security.  

The country’s military leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, seized power in 2022 amid frustrations with the government over the deadly attacks. He is expected to remain in office for another five years, delaying the junta’s promises of a democratic transition.

Around half of Burkina Faso’s territory remains outside government control. Civic freedoms have been rolled back and journalists expelled.

And the country has distanced itself from regional and Western nations that don’t agree with its approach, severing military ties with former colonial ruler France and turning to Russia instead for security support.

Safi, adrift with her children, said she plans to stay in her new community for now. She has no money or other place to go. 

“There’s a perfect harmony in the community, and they have become like family,” she said. 
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Gunmen in northern Kenya fatally shot four construction workers at a hospital site near a refugee camp and the border with Somalia where a militant group is active, police said Saturday.

A group of eight workers were resting Friday when they were attacked, leaving four shot dead at close range, a police official who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue told The Associated Press. The other four workers escaped unharmed, the official said.

The hospital construction site is near Kenya’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab, and the border with Somalia where the al-Shabab militant group is based. Garissa county has in the past been attacked by al-Shabab militants who cross through the porous border.

Local police say the Friday attack may have been staged by an armed group that had warned the contractor to stay away from the area, which they consider their turf.

Northern Kenya has in recent days seen violence that has left several people dead in different locations.

On Wednesday, police at the Mandera border point recovered an improvised explosive device that was about to detonate. Last week, two herders were killed at a watering point, also in the Mandera area, by gunmen. In April, five people were killed in a donkey cart explosion in Elwak town.

The government says security operations in northern Kenya have been increased.

The recent attacks have forced the government to suspend plans to reopen the 698-kilometer (434-mile) Kenya-Somalia border that was closed in 2011, although illegal crossings are still rampant.
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BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo — Suspected Islamist rebels killed at least 38 people in an overnight attack on villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, two district officials and a civil society leader said Saturday.

Local civil society leader Justin Kavalami blamed members of the Allied Democratic Forces for the attack. The ADF, alleged to be behind another village assault that killed at least 16 people earlier this week, originates from neighboring Uganda.

Now based in eastern Congo, it has pledged allegiance to Islamic State and mounts frequent attacks, further destabilizing a region where many militant groups are active.

Armed men used guns and machetes to attack residents of villages in Beni territory, in North Kivu province, overnight Friday, local official Fabien Kakule told Reuters.

District official Leon Kakule Siviwe said the death toll stood at 38 and said the recent surge in violence was due to the attackers taking advantage of a low security presence.

They came to “slaughter the population when there were no soldiers in place,” he told Reuters.

It was not possible to reach the ADF for comment.
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DAKAR, Senegal — Russia’s top diplomat pledged help and military assistance while on a whirlwind tour of several countries in Africa’s sub-Saharan region of Sahel this week, as Moscow seeks to grow its influence in the restive, mineral-rich section of the continent.

Russia is emerging as the security partner of choice for a growing number of African governments in the region, displacing traditional allies like France and the United States. Sergey Lavrov, who has made several trips to Africa in recent years, this week stopped in Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and Chad.

Moscow has aggressively expanded its military cooperation with African nations by using the private security company Wagner and its likely successor, Africa Corps, with Russian mercenaries taking up roles from protecting African leaders to helping states fight extremists.

The Polish Institute of International Affairs said in a study this month that in “creating the Africa Corps, Russia took an assertive approach to expand its military presence in Africa.

Moscow is also seeking political support, or at least neutrality, from many of Africa’s 54 countries over its invasion of Ukraine. African nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations and have been more divided than any other group on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Russia-linked entities also spread disinformation to undermine ties between African states and the West, the Africa Center For Strategic Studies, an academic institution within the U.S. Department of Defense, wrote in a March report. Moscow has been “sponsoring 80 documented campaigns, targeting more than 22 countries,” it said.

Here’s a look at how Russia is expanding its influence in Africa. 

Why are African nations turning to Russia? Russia has taken advantage of political unrest and discontent in coup-hit nations, capitalizing on popular frustration and anger with former colonial power France. Military coups have ousted governments seen close to France and the West and doing little to alleviate grinding poverty, unemployment and other hardships.

Russia offers security assistance without interfering in politics, making it an appealing partner in places like Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, all ruled by military juntas that seized power in recent years. In return, Moscow seeks access to minerals and other contracts.

Violence linked to extremists allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group has been on the rise in Sahel for years, despite efforts by France, the U.S. and other Western allies to help fight the jihadi groups there. In 2013, France launched a near decade long operation in Mali to help fight militants, which expanded to Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad. The operation ended nine years later but the conflict did not, contributing to anger with the West.

The U.S. has further lost its footing with key allies for forcing issues — including democracy or human rights — that many African states see as hypocrisy, given Washington’s close ties to some autocratic leaders elsewhere.

While the West may pressure African coup leaders over democracy and other issues, Russia doesn’t meddle in domestic affairs, Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, told The Associated Press.

What is Russia’s interest in African countries? Africa is rich in minerals, oil and other resources, which come with political and legal challenges. Its resources are increasingly central to economic and national security, such as cobalt, which is used in electronics like mobile phones, or lithium, which is used in batteries.

Russia has thrived in countries where governance is limited, and has signing mining deals through companies it controls. An EU parliament study showed that Russia secured access to gold and diamonds in the Central African Republic, cobalt in Congo, gold and oil in Sudan, chromite in Madagascar, platinum and diamonds in Zimbabwe, and uranium in Namibia.

The U.S. based non-profit Democracy 21 group said in an analysis last December that Wagner and Russia may have made about $2.5 billion through the African gold trade alone since invading Ukraine in February 2022.

Though Russia is increasingly a partner to African countries in the oil and mining sector, it lags far behind as an overall trading partner. For example, data by the International Monetary shows less than 1% of Africa’s exports go to Russia, compared with 33% to the European Union.

Where do Russian contractors operate in Africa? The first reports of Wagner mercenaries in Africa emerged in late 2017, when the group was deployed to Sudan to provide support to then-President Omar al-Bashir, in exchange for gold mining concessions. Wagner’s presence soon expanded to other African countries.

In 2018, Russian contractors showed up to back powerful commander Khalifa Hifter in eastern Libya who was battling militants. They also helped Hifter in his failed attempt to seize the capital of Tripoli a year later.

In the Central African Republic, Russian mercenaries have been providing security since in 2018 and in return have gained access to some of the country’s gold and diamond mines.

Coups in Mali in 2020 and 2021, in Burkina Faso in 2022 and in Niger in 2023, brought military juntas critical of the West to power. All three eventually ordered French and other Western forces out, and instead turned to Russia for military support.

Niger ordered the U.S. to withdraw its troops and close its multimillion dollar flagship investment in a sprawling military and spy base in Agadez earlier this year, after a meeting with a U.S. delegation ended poorly. The decision has upended U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Africa’s Sahel.

Weeks later, Russian trainers arrived in Niger with new defense equipment.
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KINSHASA, Congo — Three Americans accused of being involved in last month’s coup attempt in Congo appeared in a military court in the country’s capital, Kinshasa, on Friday, along with dozens of other defendants who were lined up on plastic chairs before the judge on the first day of the hearing.

The proceedings before the open-air military court were broadcast live on the local television channel.

Six people were killed during the botched coup attempt led by the little-known opposition figure Christian Malanga last month that targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi. Malanga was fatally shot for resisting arrest soon after live-streaming the attack on his social media, the Congolese army said.

The defendants face a number of charges, many punishable by death, including terrorism, murder and criminal association. The court said there were 53 names on the list, but the names of Malanga and one other person were removed after death certificates were produced.

Malanga’s 21-year-old son, Marcel Malanga, who is a U.S. citizen, and two other Americans are on trial for their alleged roles in the attack. All three requested an interpreter to translate the proceedings from French to English.

Malanga’s son was the first to be questioned by the judge, who asked him to confirm his name and other personal details. The military official chosen to translate for him was apparently unable to understand English well. Eventually, a journalist was selected from the media to replace him, but he too had trouble translating numbers and the details of the proceedings.

“He’s not interpreting right. We need a different interpreter who understands English, please,” Marcel Malanga said to the judge after the journalist incorrectly translated his zip code.

But no other translator emerged, and the defendants had to make do with the journalist, who worked for national radio. Malanga appeared frustrated and defiant as the interview stumbled ahead.

Tyler Thompson Jr., 21, flew to Africa from Utah with the younger Malanga for what his family believed was a vacation, with all expenses paid by the elder Malanga. The young men had played high school football together in the Salt Lake City suburbs. Other teammates accused Marcel of offering up to $100,000 to join him on a “security job” in Congo.

Thompson appeared before the court with a shaved head and sores on his skin, looking nervous and lost as he confirmed his name and other personal details.

His stepmother, Miranda Thompson, told The Associated Press that the family found out about the hearing too late to arrange travel to Congo but hoped to be present for future court dates. Before this week, the family had no proof he was still alive.

“We’re thrilled with the confirmation,” she said.

Miranda Thompson had worried that her stepson might not even be aware that his family knew he’d been arrested. On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Congo told the AP it had yet to gain access to the American prisoners to provide consular services before the trial.

The embassy didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Thompson’s family maintains he had no knowledge of the elder Malanga’s intentions, no plans for political activism and didn’t even plan to enter Congo. He and the Malangas were meant to travel only to South Africa and Eswatini, Thompson’s stepmother said.

Marcel Malanga’s mother, Brittney Sawyer, has said her son is innocent and simply followed his father, who considered himself president of a shadow government in exile. Sawyer and the Thompsons are independently crowdfunding legal expenses and travel funds to be present for the rest of the trial.

Both families say they remain worried about their sons’ health — Malanga has a liver disease, and Thompson contracted malaria earlier in the trip.

“As a mother, my heart is crying each day,” Sawyer wrote on her crowdfunding page. “My main goal each day is to bring him home.”

Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, is the third American on trial. He was seen seated in the back row and was the last to be interviewed. He told the court he wasn’t married and had three children. The AP was unable to reach his family for comment.

Zalman-Polun, who in 2015 pleaded guilty to trafficking marijuana, is reported to have known Christian Malanga through a gold mining company that was set up in Mozambique in 2022, according to an official journal published by Mozambique’s government and a report by the Africa Intelligence newsletter.

A prominent Belgian-Congolese researcher on political and security issues, Jean-Jacques Wondo, also appeared in court on Friday. It was unclear what evidence was held against him. Human Rights Watch said it had consulted with Wondo for years on research, and his only link to Malanga appears to be an old photo.

“Wondo and others detained should be credibly charged with a criminal offense or immediately released. An arrest based only on a 2016 photo is just not credible,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday.

The defendants will appear in court again next Friday to continue with the trial. 
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GENEVA — The International Organization for Migration warns that the number of internally displaced people in Sudan soon will top 10 million, as conflict and acute hunger spread throughout the country.   

Mohammed Refaat, the IOM’s chief of mission in Sudan, calls the crisis unfolding in Sudan a “catastrophic human tragedy.” He told journalists in Geneva on Friday that he was speaking from Port Sudan “with a heavy heart and a profound sense of urgency.” 

“Today, I am not just a representative of a U.N. agency, I am a voice for millions of Sudanese whose lives have been forever altered by the ongoing crisis. Families have been torn apart, communities devastated, and the future put on hold. The human toll of this crisis is huge,” he said.   

The IOM says that more than half of the 9.9 million people displaced inside Sudan are women and more than a quarter are children. Additionally, it says more than 2 million people have fled as refugees into neighboring countries, mainly to Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt. 

Refaat observed that before rival generals of the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces went to war in mid-April 2023, displacement was largely concentrated within Darfur and Kordofan states. Since then, he said displacement has spread widely across all 18 states, with the majority, 36 percent, from the capital, Khartoum. 

He said that 70 percent of people uprooted from their homes are trying to survive “in areas at risk of famine,” noting that most of those places are in the Darfur region, “which is currently the most difficult for humanitarians to reach.” 

“The humanitarian situation has entered a new and alarming chapter, the outbreak of fighting in Al Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, putting over 800,000 civilians at risk,” he said. “Movement restrictions are choking the lifelines of those in the state, with crucial roads out of Al Fasher blocked and preventing civilians from reaching safer areas and limiting the amount of food and humanitarian aid coming into the city,” 

The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Program issued a joint report on 18 world “hunger hotspots” Thursday in which they cite Sudan, along with Mali, Palestine, and South Sudan, as countries that “remain at the highest alert, and require the most urgent attention” to prevent famine. 

According to the report, “18 million people are acutely food insecure, including 3.6 million children acutely malnourished, and famine is rapidly closing in on millions of people in Darfur, Kordofan, Al Jazirah, and Khartoum.” 

“Conflict and displacement also continue at an alarming pace and magnitude in Sudan, where time is running out to save lives and the lean season looms,” the report warns. 

Sudan historically has been a major transit and destination country for migrants. It traditionally has been a haven for many fleeing war, hunger and hardship from neighboring countries. 

The IOM’s Refaat notes that the recent war has exacerbated the situation, however, “leaving many migrants and refugees stranded with limited access to support and services.” 

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization warns that the health system in Sudan is collapsing. It notes about 65 percent of the Sudanese population lacks access to health care, just 25 percent of needed medical supplies are available and “only 20 to 30 percent of health facilities remain functional, at minimal levels” in hard-to-reach areas. 

“At least two-thirds of the states are experiencing simultaneous outbreaks,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier, noting that vaccination for measles has declined “due to the conflict.”   

“Over 11,000 cases of cholera have been reported from 12 states and this is likely to be an underestimate, and there are also outbreaks of malaria and dengue,” he said, adding that many people are suffering from mental health, non-communicable and chronic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and kidney failure for lack of treatment. 

The IOM says that the prices of food, water and fuel are skyrocketing, making those essential goods unaffordable. This, at a time when “the world’s worst internal displacement crisis continues to escalate, with looming famine and disease adding to the havoc wrought by conflict,” it said in a statement Thursday. 

Refaat said, “Aid agencies have struggled to keep pace with the growing needs.  Funding shortfalls are impeding efforts to provide adequate shelter, food, and medical assistance.” 

“Serious concerns are mounting about the long-term impact of the displacement on Sudan’s social and economic fabric,” he said, emphasizing that the IOM’s $312.5 million appeal to provide aid for 1.7 million people this year is only 19 percent funded.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Presidents and finance ministers from eleven central African countries have failed to agree on merging three economic blocs.

Analysts say breaking down economic barriers among member countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS, and the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries CEPGL will boost trade and growth in a region that is said to be among the poorest and most conflict-ridden in the world. 

But after a meeting in Cameroon’s capital, officials say combining the three economic blocs will take longer than the leaders of the regions expect.

Gilberto Da Piedade Verissimo is the president of ECCAS.

He says the process of merging the economic blocs is taking longer than planned because of a lack of political will, conflicting interests and bureaucratic duplication among 3 rival economic groups. He says each time there is a leadership change, ECCAS officials start explaining the importance of fusing the economic blocs for the general interest of the eleven central African states to new governments all over again because different leaders have different understandings of the combination.

Verissimo said merging economic blocs will stop the duplication of regional projects such as airlines, roads, electricity, agriculture and aquaculture, making it easier for funding agencies to invest in such projects. 

ECCAS consists of Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe and was created in 1983. It is officially recognized by the African Union as central Africa’s regional economic community. 

In 1999 Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo and Equatorial Guinea launched CEMAC, but remained members of ECCAS.

In 2003 Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda created CEPGL but also remained in ECCAS. 

The three economic blocs claim that their mission is to facilitate the free movement of goods and persons across borders and promote regional integration, reduce inequality and poverty. 

But the African Union, or AU, says the central African states remain among the poorest countries, although their economic and social potential is very strong. In 2006, the AU asked central African leaders to merge the three economic blocs.   

Edouard Normand Bigendaka is the governor of the Bank of the Republic of Burundi. He says the participants in the Yaounde meeting created an organization to examine a new currency to replace the West African CFA Franc and the Central African CFA Franc.

“This high monetary authority will be in charge of preparing the different steps towards a free trade zone and then a common market, so that’s the rationale of having a common currency,” Bigendaka said. “There are a number of steps that have to be put in place by member countries before we attain this particular objective.”

Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute represented President Paul Biya at the meeting.

Ngute says despite the challenges, committed leaders of the region will continue advocating for a strong regional economic community that will improve business, encourage the free movement of people and reduce poverty. He says central African states cannot continue to think that they can single handedly solve their problems while other countries, including developed nations, are counting on economic blocs to tackle their problems.

The AU says fusing the economic blocs will facilitate trade and growth among central Africa’s 240 million inhabitants and allow member states to concentrate on infrastructure development and jointly combating climate shocks, terrorism and armed groups that are destabilizing the eleven countries.
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JOHANNESBURG — South African opposition parties were meeting Friday and will continue crunch talks into next week to consider the ruling African National Congress’ offer to become part of a government of national unity.

ANC failed to secure a majority in last week’s highly contested election, but some opposition parties are already rejecting the party’s offer because of deep-seated divisions.

Senior officials of the main opposition Democratic Alliance, or DA, will meet on Monday to discuss the centrist party’s approach to the negotiations. The top leadership of the the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, or EFF, party were holding talks on Friday.

Parties are under pressure to conclude negotiations and reach an agreement by June 16, because South Africa’s constitution requires them to do so within 14 days after the declaration of the election results.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is ANC leader, announced on Thursday that the party had decided to form a government of national unity and had invited all parties to join, a process that is expected to be complex considering vast divisions among the opposition parties themselves.

Most of the opposition parties don’t differ only with the ANC on various socioeconomic policies, but are also at extreme odds with each other on economic policies like land redistribution and affirmative action.

Opposition party ActionSA has already declared it won’t be part of the negotiations, saying that it refuses to work with the ANC.

In what looks likely to be a government of national unity reminiscent of a path taken by the Nelson Mandela-led ANC after the country’s first democratic election in 1994, the party has decided to invite a myriad of opposition parties to be part of the government.

While Mandela insisted on a unity government despite the ANC having won by an overwhelming majority with nearly 63% of the national vote, the ANC has been forced into the current situation by its worst electoral performance ever, dropping from the 57.5% it got in the 2019 election to 40% this year, a decline of 17.5%.

Shortly after Ramaphosa’s announcement, the EFF’s leader took to X to reject Ramaphosa’s proposal of a government of national unity and accused the ANC of arrogance despite failing to win a majority.

The EFF is among the top five parties after the election with just over 9% of the national vote, having declined from the 11% it garnered in 2019 but is expected to form a crucial part of the eventual outcome of the negotiations.

“The arrogance continues even after the South African voters issued warning signs. You can’t dictate the way forward as if you have won elections,” EFF leader Julius Malema said. “We are not desperate for anything, ours is a generational mission.

“We can’t share power with the enemy,” Malema said.

In 2023, DA declared the Economic Freedom Fighters as its No. 1 enemy.

DA, which got just over 21% of the national vote to remain the second-biggest party, said its highest decision-making body, the Federal Council, would meet on Monday to consider its options.

“I can’t say now what the position of the DA is, we have a whole negotiation team and we are meeting as the federal council on Monday. We will have a framework for negotiations that we will release this weekend,” Democratic Alliance federal chairperson Helen Zille said Friday.

The fifth-biggest party with nearly 4% of the national vote, the Inkatha Freedom Party, on Friday expressed willingness to be part of the government of national unity, but was also set to discuss the matter with its party structures over the next few days.

“In principle, the IFP is not averse to a GNU (government of national unity). However, the devil is in the details, which will become clearer in the coming days … enabling the IFP to make a well-considered decision,” IFP spokesman Mkhuleko Hlengwa said.

The uMkhonto weSizwe Party led by former President Jacob Zuma, who left the ANC, was the latest to enter the negotiations, with the party confirming on Thursday that it had begun talks with the ANC after initially failing to respond to the party’s invitation.

The party has raised objections about the election results to the country’s electoral body, citing alleged voting irregularities and threatening to boycott the first sitting of Parliament to swear in the country’s new lawmakers.

Economists say that the markets are keenly awaiting the outcome of the negotiations to see the composition of the next government of Africa’s most developed economy, and the economic policies it will pursue.
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WASHINGTON — The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday elected Somalia to the 15-member U.N. Security Council for a two-year term starting in 2025.

The tiny Horn of Africa nation was among five countries that received the winning votes, alongside Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, and Panama.

“It is both symbolic and strong diplomatic status for Somalia to appear among the Security Council members and this will help Somalia to have a better access for member nations,” said Somalia analyst Abdiqafar Abdi Wardhere, who is based in Virginia.

For the first time in more than 50 years, he said, Somalia will have a vote on decisions regarding world conflicts.

“The Security Council is the only U.N. body that can make legally binding decisions such as imposing sanctions and authorizing use of force. Therefore, Somalia would get a vote that determines the world issues and resolutions,” Wardhere said.

Announcing the elections’ results, the U.N. General Assembly President Dennis Francis, said, “In a secret ballot, the elected countries secured the required two-thirds majority of Member States present and voting in the 193-member General Assembly.”

Following the news, the United Nations in Somalia congratulated the Somali government and its people “on their country’s election today to a seat on the UN Security Council for 2025-2026.”

“Somalia has come a long way over the past three decades on its path to peace, prosperity, and security,” said the UN Secretary-General’s Acting Special Representative for Somalia James Swan. “Election to a seat on the Security Council is recognition of that commendable progress.”

“Somalia’s experiences place it in a unique position to contribute to Council deliberations on international peace and security,” Swan added.

The Security Council’s five permanent veto-wielding members are Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

The five countries that got elected Thursday will replace Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland, whose terms end December 31.

Somali and the other elected new members will join existing non-permanent members Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia, whose terms started in January.

According to United Nations, the 10 non-permanent seats on the Security Council are distributed according to four regional groupings: Africa and Asia; Eastern Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Western European and other States group.

The newly elected members were endorsed by their respective regional groups and ran largely uncontested.

Margaret Besheer contributed this report from New York. 
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LONDON — Government officials would be acting unlawfully by implementing Britain’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda in breach of an order from Europe’s human rights court, a civil servants’ trade union told London’s High Court on Thursday.

The FDA union is taking legal action against the government over guidance issued to civil servants on how to implement decisions to remove people to Rwanda. It says this would mean its members breaking international law.

The guidance tells officials to obey ministers if they decide to ignore temporary injunctions — known as interim measures — issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which is based in Strasbourg.

The FDA’s lawyers say this unlawfully involves civil servants in “a clear violation of international law” in breach of their code of conduct.

“The Strasbourg court has made clear beyond any doubt that interim measures are not optional,” the union’s lawyer Tom Hickman said.

The first planned flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda was blocked in 2022 after the ECHR issued a temporary injunction – a situation Britain’s new law to implement the Rwanda policy seeks to pre-empt by stating that it is for ministers to decide whether to abide by such an order.

Government lawyers argue that the guidance simply follows the new law and that civil servants following ministers’ decisions would be complying with domestic law.

Election is key

The legal challenge comes ahead of a July 4 national election in Britain, in which immigration will again be a major political issue as small boats bearing asylum seekers continue to make the perilous journey across the Channel from France.

Sending asylum seekers who have arrived in Britain without permission to Rwanda is Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s flagship immigration policy, but legal and parliamentary obstacles have meant it has never got off the ground.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled the plan was unlawful because of the risk that Rwanda would return asylum seekers to their country of origin. Sunak in response signed a new treaty with the east African country and pushed new legislation through parliament to override the Supreme Court ruling.

But implementation of the policy hinges on Sunak’s Conservatives winning the election.

The first flight is due to leave on July 24 if they do. But the opposition Labour Party, leading by about 20 points in opinion polls, has pledged to scrap the plan if elected.
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Johannesburg, South Africa — South Africa’s ruling ANC party was holding internal talks on Thursday to decide how to form a government, after it failed to win an outright majority in last week’s general election.  

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress won 40 percent of the vote — its lowest score ever — and for the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994 needs the backing of other parties.   

“What are you doing here?” Ramaphosa quipped to reporters, as he arrived at a hotel on the outskirts of Johannesburg where the ANC’s decision-making body was meeting. “Are you that worried?”  

The party of late anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is divided over who to share power with, analysts say.   

It will have only 159 members in the 400-seat National Assembly, down from 230 in 2019.   

On Wednesday, ANC spokeswoman Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the top leadership favored forming a broad coalition for a government of national unity.  

“We want to bring everybody on board because South Africans want us to work together for their sake,” ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula told reporters on Thursday.   

But observers say this might be hard to pull off given radical differences between some groups that should be part of it.    

“I cannot… see how it can really work,” analyst and author Susan Booysen told AFP.   

“There is just so much bad blood and ill feeling between different political parties.”    

Among them are the center-right Democratic Alliance (DA), which won 87 seats with a liberal, free-market agenda, and the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which secured 39 lawmakers and supports land redistribution and the nationalization of key economic sectors.    

Bhengu-Motsiri said the ANC was in discussions also with the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which will hold 17 seats, and the anti-immigration Patriotic Alliance (PA) that will have nine.   

The ANC also “repeatedly” reached out to former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which won 14.6 percent of the vote and 58 seats, but received no response.   

Zuma, a former ANC chief, has long been bitter about the way he was ousted under a cloud of corruption allegations in 2018.   

The MK, which was only established late last year, has rejected the election results and said it would not back an ANC-led government if Ramaphosa remains at the helm.   

But the president’s party plans to keep him.   

‘Outcry’

Analyst Daniel Silke said the ANC was likely floating the idea of a “broad church” government to appease some members before veering towards a narrower coalition if national unity talks failed.   

Many within the party oppose a deal with the DA, which is favored by investors and the business community but has policies at odds with the ANC’s left-wing traditions.   

Reports suggesting the ANC was considering forming a minority government with external backing from the DA caused a “huge outcry”, said Booysen.     

Outside the hotel where the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) was meeting, a handful of protesters held signs reading “Not in our name. #NotwiththeDA.”    

The South African Communist Party, an historic ally of the ANC, also said it was against any arrangement with “the right-wing, DA-led anti-ANC neo-liberal forces.”   

Together the ANC and the DA hold a comfortable majority in parliament.   

Any agreement with the EFF would instead require the support of at least another party.    

The new parliament is to meet in less than two weeks and one of its first tasks will be to elect a president to form a new government. 
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Yaounde, Cameroon — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected in Chad’s capital N’djamena Wednesday, continuing an African tour that has taken him to Guinea and Congo. Russian Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov has also been on the move in Africa, visiting Libya and Niger. The visits are seen by civil society and analysts as Russia’s attempt to establish its troops in the Sahel region after military leaders seized power, sparking ideological differences over the presence of American and French troops in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger and Chad.

Several hundred people gathered at the N’djamena International airport Wednesday to welcome Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Chad’s government says it mobilized civilians to receive Lavrov because he is the first top foreign official to visit after the inauguration of Mahamat Idriss Deby as Chad’s President and the formation of a new government to end a three-year transition in the central African state.

Among those awaiting the Russian envoy is 38-year-old merchant Immaculate Djeida.

Djeida said she expects Russia, one of the leading producers and exporters of wheat, to transfer technology and know-how to Chad, where civilians have enough land to produce wheat, rice, maize and beef but do not have enough food to eat. She said she expects Russia to assist Chad in developing a viable electricity network that can bring electrical power to 90 percent of Chad’s citizens.

Djeida spoke to VOA via a messaging app from N’djamena Wednesday.

In a statement released Wednesday, Chad’s government said Lavrov will discuss efficient methods to combat terrorism, and enhance military, diplomatic, economic and trade ties between Chad and Russia.

The government said Lavrov will also discuss the security situation in the countries of the Sahel as well as the war in Sudan, which has displaced close to a million people across Sudan’s border to Chad and Libya.

Chad says Russia will support it in dealing with the humanitarian crisis caused by the war against Boko Haram terrorists that has killed more than 36,000 people and displaced 3 million according to the United Nations.

Chad is fighting Boko Haram alongside troops from neighbors Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Lavrov is visiting Chad at a time when Russia is expanding its military presence in Sahel countries including Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Sudan and Chad. At the same time, Sahel countries are asking troops of their former colonial ruler, France to leave.

Niger’s military rulers said in May of this year, high-level talks were held with U.S. military officials in Niamey to coordinate plans to also withdraw more than 900 American military forces before the end of 2024.

Chad says most U.S. troops left its territory before the central African states’ May 6 presidential elections. Mahamat Idriss Deby, the declared winner, told Chad state TV during his inauguration that cooperation with U.S. troops is under review, but gave no further details.

U.S. troops have been stationed in Chad and Niger to help local militaries combat Islamist terrorists in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Sudan and Chad.

Yamingue Betinbaye is a political analyst at Chad’s Anthropology and Human Sciences Research Center. He spoke on Chads State TV Wednesday.

Betinbaye said Russia has been successfully reinforcing its military presence in countries of the Sahel region since 2021, when the Mali army, led by Colonel Assimi Goïta, seized power from President Bah Ndaw. He said Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali that have military rulers are suspending military cooperation with France because Paris never succeeded in pushing back jihadist threats even with the one-time presence of 5,500 stationed French troops in the region.

Betinbaye said anti-French sentiments increased in the Sahel when France supported Niger’s ousted President Mohamed Bazoum who was toppled by a popular military led by General Abdourahamane Tiani.

He said the presence of France, a former colonial power in Central and West Africa and the Sahel, is largely seen as an exploitative and overbearing political influence. France has always said it is present in Africa to promote democracy, human rights, economic growth and fight increasing insecurity.

Russia started deploying military equipment and trainers to Sahel countries when military leaders who seized power began forcing out French troops.

Russia says the visits of the two officials will end with the signing of joint security agreements with Chad, Guinea, Congo, Libya and Niger.

In January, Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby met with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. Deby said among issues he discussed with Putin were the military, diplomatic and trade ties Chad needs to fasten its development and bring lasting peace to the country where armed gangs and jihadist are in running battles with government troops.
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GENEVA — Every year, many of the hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa seeking asylum or jobs in Europe are “at great risk of harm and death” because few protection services are available to help them on their perilous journey, according to a report issued by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Tuesday.

“The absence of critical services is placing refugees and migrants at great risk of harm and death and is also triggering dangerous secondary onward movements,” Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR special envoy for the central Mediterranean situation told journalists at a briefing Tuesday in Geneva.

“Some refugees and migrants underestimate the risks, while many fall victim to the narratives of smugglers and traffickers,” he said.

The report highlights the horrors faced by refugees and migrants who risk their lives moving on dangerous routes stretching from the East and Horn of Africa and West Africa towards North Africa’s Atlantic coast, and across the Central Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

The UNHCR reports refugees and migrants from about 20 different African countries “die while crossing the desert or near borders.” As well as Sub-Saharan Africans, it says an increasing number of people from countries in Asia and the Middle East, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, and Syria are arriving in North Africa.

The report says most of the refugees and migrants “suffer serious human rights violations en route” including ‘’sexual and gender-based violence, kidnappings for ransom, torture, and physical abuse.”

“Protection services along the routes that can help mitigate the risks these people face — such as immediate humanitarian assistance, shelter for people who have been exposed to violence, and access to justice — are often not available,” Cochetel said.

“In many countries, the services that were there in 2022-2023 are no longer there. This is the case, in particular, in Morocco, in Mauritania, in Sudan because of the conflict, in the northern part of Niger, in the southern part of Algeria. So, basically these are in key hubs, key crossing routes that are used by migrants and refugees,” he said.

Aside from the conflict in Sudan, several other crises emerged in 2023 that forced people to flee their homes.

“Regrettably, more emergencies cannot be ruled out in 2024,” authors of the report warn. “Neither can the human need of people to flee or abandon their homes to find safety and or better… basic life conditions for themselves and their families.”

Cochetel observed that the lack of sustained funding threatens the limited services that currently are available, including search and rescue missions.

“In the past, la gendarmerie nationale [the national military police] in Agadez, Niger, would pick up people who had been stranded or abandoned by smugglers and traffickers in the desert. But such rescue missions,” he said, “no longer occur along that route.”

“The only country on the African continent where I know that this concept is implemented is in Djibouti,” Cochetel said.

He said Djiboutian authorities are patrolling the land side of their coast “to see people that have been abandoned by smugglers in the desertic areas or people who have returned with the same smugglers from Yemen and who are dropped in the middle of nowhere,” adding that such search and rescue projects needed to be developed in partnership with local authorities in Nigeria, southern Morocco, Mauritania, and other desert regions.

“We would need that to save more lives and bring back to safety people stranded or abandoned there,” Cochetel said.

Since the publication of the previous report in July 2022, the UNHCR says an estimated 3,045 individuals have been reported dead or missing along the combined Central and Western Mediterranean and Northwest Africa Maritime routes.

“However, the real figures could be significantly higher, as many incidents likely go undetected and remain unrecorded,” it said.

While the report is meant to make governments aware of the shortcomings in support services, UNHCR’s Cochetel said it also is intended to provide useful information on the availability of services for refugees and migrants who are “lost, stranded, and abused along the routes.”

For example, he said the report contains GPS coordinates and WhatsApp numbers that refugees and migrants can use to locate essential, possibly life-saving protective services.
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Nairobi — South Africans say they are excited and eager to see what a coalition government is going to look like days after elections show no party won an outright majority.

“I’m excited because the ANC is finally going to be in a position where they have to reconsider how they’ve been approaching running the country, governing the country,” 30-year-old architect Simphiwe Malambo tells VOA.

“This is going to be a very challenging era for South Africans’ politics,” especially for the ruling party, 40-year old Pafana Zempe, an artist and educator said to VOA, adding the ANC will now have to think “which coalition they should do because with the DA it’s something else, with EFF it’s something else, with the latest MK, it’s also something else,” he said.

“Depending on the coalitions, if it’s the DA/ANC coalition together, the DA can actually get in and do some good where the ANC has failed,” Mark Fleming, an animator who didn’t share his age, told VOA.

Possible coalitions:

The African National Congress secured 40% of the vote, followed by the Democratic Alliance with about 22%. A coalition between the two could reconcile the country, says Tendai Mbanje, election analyst from the African Center for Governance.

“The DA/ANC coalition promotes non-racialism. The DA/ANC coalition promotes unity in the country among two races. It could also strike a balance between competing differences in terms of addressing issues of poverty…economic issues affecting the country.”

Other coalitions could be with the newly formed party led by former president Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto We Sizwe or MK, which won about 15% or the Economic Freedom Party (EFF), which won about 10% of the final vote tally. Edgar Githua is a professor at Strathmore University in Kenya.

“Unfortunately, Zuma has already… said he will only have a coalition with the ANC on conditions that Cyril Ramaphosa is not going to be the president… it looks like ANC EFF, and they need one of the other tiny ones to help them pretty much get to 50-51% to be able to form a government comfortably.”

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) grabbed about 4% of the vote while the Patriotic Alliance took 2% according to the country’s Independent Electoral Commission.

The ANC says its leader will not resign following election results but is open to working with everyone to form a government that will serve South Africa’s people.

“At this stage in time, Cyril Ramaphosa is the best foot forward for the ANC, simply because of his reputation within and globally,” Mbanje noted.

Effects of coalitions internally and globally

While internally, the economy and governance could improve with a coalition government, South Africa’s stance on global issues could face some opposition.

For example, Mbanje said there could be “contradictions or fights within the coalition government in regards… to South Africa’s positions regarding certain countries for example, Israel Palestine issue, issue of Zimbabwe within the SADC [Southern African Development Community], Ukraine Russia issues among others.”

Views echoed by Githua. “These are some of the things that will now have to be renegotiated within the coalition government because all the political parties have their manifestos, have how they want to project themselves.”

South Africa has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza in a case they brought to the International Court of Justice. Israel argues that its ground offensive which the Gaza health ministry says has killed about 36 thousand Palestinians is in response to Hamas militants’ attack on Israel last year that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies.
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The African National Congress failed to win an outright majority in South Africa’s recent election. This means the ANC for the first time will need to form a coalition to govern. What will it look like, and how will it affect the country’s policies internally and globally? VOA Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo reports. VOA footage by Zaheer Cassim.
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Chinatowns are recognizable all over the world, either by their big red gates or streets lined with Chinese restaurants and stores. In Nairobi, Kenya, there are several Chinatowns of different sizes scattered around the city. VOA Nairobi bureau chief, Mariama Diallo took a stroll in one of them and has this story. Camera and edit: Amos Wangwa
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Abuja, Nigeria — Nigerian workers’ unions launched a nationwide strike protesting the failure to implement a new minimum wage to help workers cope with the high cost of living amid economic reforms.

The strike began Monday morning following a notice by the Nigerian Labor Congress and the Trade Union Congress — the NLC and TUC respectively — on Friday.

There was widespread compliance as workers across various sectors abstained from duty.

Union representatives said the strike was triggered after weeks of failed negotiations to implement a new minimum wage.

The unions had proposed $370 as the new monthly minimum wage, citing soaring costs of living caused by government policies.

NLC spokesperson Benson Upah said unions have been patient with authorities.

“As far as we know, no government has been this lucky,” Upah said. “And for our uncommon understanding and patience with this administration, we have been called names. Yet this government does not want to wake up.”

Nigeria’s government is proposing about $49 dollars as the new minimum wage up from about $24.

Authorities have condemned the nationwide strike calling it illegal and unnecessary.

On Sunday, a Nigerian senate committee met with the unions in a bid to settle the dispute. But after long negotiations, the NLC and TUC said they failed to reach an agreement.

After Sunday’s meeting with unions, Senate president Godswill Akpabio told journalists whatever agreement is reached “will be mutually beneficial to all, both the government and the workers.”

In May 2023, President Bola Tinubu introduced economic reforms including the scrapping of fuel subsidy and currency unification with the aim of boosting the economy.

But the policies have been blamed for raising the cost of living, sparking strikes by workers who want policies reversed or a higher minimum wage.

Upah said the government is implementing foreign policies without considering Nigeria’s needs.

“We do not know who the beneficiaries of these policies are, because we the workers are dying. Manufacturers are dying. Other entities are dying,” he said. “No reasonable government leaves their national currency to the stumps of the market. They do something behind the scenes quietly. But we took a dictation from the World Bank, IMF, hook, line and sinker.”
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HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Faced with a broken public transit system, poor road conditions, fuel shortages and low salaries, Zimbabwean authorities are urging citizens to cycle to work, ostensibly for health reasons and to promote a clean environment, as bicycles do not use fossil fuels. 

Jacob Mafume, the mayor of Harare, said if Zimbabweans in greater numbers chose to cycle to work, there would be less congestion and fewer road accidents, among other benefits.   

“Most of the health problems that we have in society now is that we are sitting all the time. We sit at work. We sit in the car, as we [drive] there. So it does not help as a society to be built on unhealthy practices,” Mafume said. “But also, it is also cheaper on the budget: People can focus on other issues like housing, education and even investment, if they are on bicycles. And also, it is environmentally friendly. It is less impact on our environment. And people would thank us later for this, as they will live to ripe old age in fitness.” 

Ngoni Nyamadzawo, a part-time gardener in Harare’s affluent suburbs, cycles daily as a way to reduce costs to save his average salary of $150 a month. 

“I see cycling as a saving measure. If I did not cycle, I would use $30 a month for transport,” Nyamadzawo said. 

Segio Tarwirei works for a local NGO, Tree Knowers and Growers, which advocates for more trees. He cycles daily and encourages Zimbabweans to join him.

“Cycling has so many physical benefits,” he said. “Driving is not good for the environment as cars release dirt into the atmosphere. As an organization — of Tree Knowers and Growers — we encourage people to cycle. If I was using public transport, I would be paying $4 daily, at the end of the month it would be a lot of money, so cycling is good for health and the pocket.” 

Tarwirei said he would like the city of Harare to rehabilitate cycling tracks, which have been neglected for years.  

Mayor Mafume said he is aware of the dilapidated state of cycling lanes in the capital city. 

“We are going to revamp them,” he said. “One of the issues that we have to do is to put a cycle track running across Harare Drive. Once we have a cycle track circling the city, then all the other cycle tracks can fit into Harare Drive.”  

Harare Drive is the city’s longest road and circles Harare. 
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Johannesburg  — Talks to form South Africa’s first national coalition government are expected to begin this week after the governing ANC party lost its majority for the first time. 

Despite the heavy blow his African National Congress party took at the polls, President Cyril Ramaphosa showed humor at a ceremony announcing the official South African election results Sunday night.  

After an electoral commission official misspoke in welcoming the guests to the ceremony, Ramaphosa retorted that he was “distinguished” and not yet “extinguished,” drawing a laugh from the politicians and media gathered. 

On a more serious note, the president pledged that the ANC — which got 40 percent of the vote — would work with other parties to find “common ground” as coalition talks get underway. 

The ANC has had a majority for 30 years, since the end of apartheid, so governing in a coalition marks unchartered territory. Under the law, parties now have two weeks to form a government — with South Africans on edge about what form that could take. 

There are several main options, Melanie Verwoerd, a former ANC member of parliament and diplomat who’s now a political analyst, told VOA. 

“There are a number of coalition options. … The first one is obviously a coalition with, a formal coalition with, the Democratic Alliance and the IFP,” Verwoerd said. 

The IFP is the Inkatha Freedom Party, a small opposition party popular with the Zulu people. 

The Democratic Alliance is a centrist party and South Africa’s main opposition. It took 21 percent of the vote in the elections.  

Big businesses and Western powers would favor a coalition with the DA, which observers say has a good track record in areas it’s been in charge of locally. 

However, it is led by a white man, John Steenhuisen, which is a huge optics problem for many in South Africa because of the country’s history, noted David Everatt, a professor at Johannesburg’s Wits School of Governance. 

“We have to understand that to go into a coalition with the Democratic Alliance, which is the official opposition, is seen by some as a betrayal of the revolution,” Everatt said. 

Former MP Verwoerd said those in the ANC who balk at a coalition with the DA have another option, involving the radical left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) or former President Jacob Zuma’s new uMkhonto weSizwe party, or MK.  

“Then, of course, there is the more troubling one, which is an ANC-EFF coalition or an ANC-MK coalition, neither of which the ANC favors as a first option because it would affect the markets quite negatively and also [ANC is] very concerned about the stability of such a coalition,” Verwoerd said. 

The populist MK party got the third highest number of votes, and was a game-changer in this election, despite Zuma having to resign in disgrace from the presidency in 2018 amid numerous corruption scandals. 

Zuma is a sworn enemy of Ramaphosa, and the MK party has said they will not go into a coalition with what they call “the ANC of Ramaphosa.” 

The EFF, led by firebrand politician Julius Malema, came fourth at the polls and wants expropriation without compensation of land, as well as nationalization of the mines and banks. 

Steenhuisen on Sunday called the possibility of an ANC-EFF agreement a “doomsday coalition” and promised the DA would engage in talks to try and prevent it from happening. 

On Tuesday, the ANC’s top brass is set to discuss coalitions. The party has publicly stated that Ramaphosa staying on as president is non-negotiable.
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